How I'm creating a food-producing paradise on my small city block

This summer, I tore apart my backyard ahead of a major makeover to create a food-producing permaculture paradise on my small city block. The idea was to invest time and energy in good planning up-front, creating a strategic garden design that will pump out heaps of organic food yet require increasingly less effort to maintain. Understanding a few key permaculture concepts and jotting down a plan has proven crucial to guiding good design choices – and that same process might help you create a great garden, too, no matter how big or small your patch is. I documented things such as: The direction of north on my map; Which direction the wind and rain usually came from; Where the hottest spots were in my garden, and how deep the shade fell in winter ; How much rainwater or greywater I could capture and reuse; What type of soil I have; and Which existing plants grow well and what seems to struggle or need special care. This worked so well that a big part of my new permaculture plan includes building a large open pergola along my home's northern wall, up which I plan to grow grapevines – for food and summer shade, yet deciduous in winter to allow sunlight to passively heat my house.